Chess club for kids thrives in Congo camp

Kanyaruchinya, Congo, Aug. 11: Children sit on the dirt, their clothes ragged and torn, their shoes punctured with holes, but their eyes bright and fixed on what's playing out in front of them.

In a corner of a refugee camp in conflict-wracked eastern Congo, about a dozen chess games are going, each one with its own fascinated audience.

The Soga Chess Club for children doesn't have enough tables and chairs. The “boards” are squares of paper with green and white blocks marked on them and are lined with plastic to protect them from the wear and tear coming their way. Irritatingly, the pieces sometimes topple over if players haven't found a flat enough stretch of ground to lay their game out on.

But the chess club founders say it’s good enough to try and take these kids' minds away from what they’ve seen and experienced so far: fighting and killing, hunger and fear. They've all lost their homes. Some have lost fathers, mothers or siblings in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Chess is "a therapeutic escape from the stress and horrors these children have endured,” said Gabriel Nzaji, one of the club's instructors. He said the game encourages the children to be quiet and to focus, a way of calming their minds.

More than 5 million people have been displaced by decades of conflict in eastern Congo, where dozens of armed groups fight each other over land and control of areas rich in sought-after minerals. An increase in fighting in recent months has led to a new surge of refugees, and there's no end in sight for a displacement disaster that dwarfs many others that get more global attention.

Hundreds of thousands of people forced to escape the attacks that destroy their towns and villages have ended up in vast displacement camps like Kanyaruchinya, where the Soga Chess Club operates. The United Nations Children's Fund says around a quarter million children live in the camps, ripped away from their homes and their schools, and sometimes their families.

Soga has around 100 children signed up to its club. One of them is 9-year-old Heritier, who is still learning the game, but confident enough already to hand out his own lesson.

“Here,” he said, his fingers flicking across the board. "I’m doing everything to protect my king on the chessboard. I have to sacrifice this queen. You see that?” (AP)